Learning From EA’s Online Conversation

If you are a company trying to compete today you are online. Period. That probably means that you have also heard gobs and gobs of information about social media and online conversations. You may have also heard about the need to be conscious of your own level of importance within the lives of consumers (i.e. no one wants to be friends with your mouthwash). However, if you are like me and have a simple brain, you hear phrases such as “your brand needs to participate in the ongoing online conversation,” and think to yourself “sounds like a nifty thing to say, but what does that mean?” Well, I always find I learn best from examples and I think I have a found a great one. EA has filmed a posted a response to a user video that was on YouTube. Lets take a look:

Original User Video:

EA Response:

Here are a couple points that I take away from this response:

• EA didn’t try to create their own social network or video-sharing site, they found an existing community, developed an understanding of the social conventions that were already there and worked within them.
• As with any great participant in a conversation, EA listened. Levinator25 posted a “glitch” in the game, and rather than get defensive EA posted a funny video that took its tonal cues from the original.
• EA added to the conversation. If EA hadn’t been able to come up with something as funny as this retort I believe they would have just skipped the idea altogether. No one needs EA’s voice here, but if it is interesting then it will be welcomed.
• If you are a large company, be a large company. The average YouTube poster can’t film a video with the real Tiger Woods, but EA can.

Oh Boy Obama!

Oh Boy Obama is a site that crowd sources political campaign ideas. The thinking goes that this will quickly separate the wheat from the chaff and all the good ideas will bubble up to the surface. Since anyone can participate there will likely be a bunch of ideas. As a great professor, Mark Fenske, once told me quantity will breed quality. Thanks to that I have no doubt that there will be good ideas on the site. What I am skeptical of is whether the good ideas will be the ones that rise to the top? In all likelihood it will be the popular ideas, not necessarily the good ones that come up. This technique works well if you are selling a product since a popular product idea would likely translate to sales. However, I haven’t seen companies crowd sourcing advertising strategies. Just because a strategic idea is popular doesn’t mean it will be effective at accomplishing its goals. On the other hand, if Obama had wanted to crowd source his selection for, VP that would have been a better option that would have likely netted a greater amount of followers…Hillary anyone???