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An article in today’s Wall Street Journal (”Ford’s Latest Better Idea”) describes Ford Motor Company’s latest campaign. What caught my eye was their strategy which is a build a grass-roots “army of Ford brand advocates.” As described further, potential customers are meant to “feel something” and “do something” about Ford such as visiting a dealer. Weber Shandwick’s research on Advocates describes this phenomenon well. Identifying your advocates early in the decision-making process is critical and understanding what you are asking them to do on your behalf is where the rubber meets the road.
I recently heard an interesting story that reminded me that advocacy for a brand, cause or reputation works best when it stems from the top. Dutch logistics company TNT CEO Peter Bakker traded in his Porsche for a hybrid car. As part of his company’s corporate responsibility program titled Planet ME which asks people to make choices at work and home to address global climate change, Bakker made his car switch to “walk the talk.” He states that corporate activities combined with individual actions will make the greatest difference in reducing carbon emissions and saving the planet. In addition, all staffs’ company-leased cars at TNT have to be “green.”
Advocacy that works has to stretch from top to bottom, from mailroom to boardroom, from A to Z. That is also one reason why we at Weber Shandwick call our initiative, Advocacy starts here.
Imagine my surprise when I typed “badvocates” into Google and found a blog titled badvocates by Craig Ritchie. The reason I am surprised is that we coined the term badvocates last year in May. Weber Shandwick conducted research on what drives advocacy and badvocacy worldwide…who are these people who champion or detract from companies, causes and organizations. The badvocates are the advocates with their thumbs down. His blog has a tag line that says “You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry. And own a blog. Or a webcam. ” He also has a cute UN-smiley face….>:( for badvocates. Our research found that badvocates spread negative word-of-mouth faster and to more people. Don’t get on their bad side! That’s okay if Craig wants to borrow the term. We believe in open sourcing.
Everyone is talking about Starbucks and whether it can turnaround its reputation once again as founder CEO Howard Schultz takes the reins. It’s like Coca-Cola and Pepsi wars. People like to talk about the relative merits of Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts coffee. It is perfect water cooler talk, as omnipresent as Obama and Hillary conversations which you can find on any street corner. A recent poll I read about in PRWeek (2.14.08) found that of 62 percent of consumers who regularly visit coffee shop brands, 16 percent “actively avoid Starbucks.” We would call them badvocates although the article refers to them as “active avoiders.” I was taken with the term which is why I wrote this post just now. I like “badvocates” better. That’s my vote.
Since the presidential election has underscored new trends and shifts in public engagement, advocacy seems top of mind. Many of the advocates for the Democratic and Republican candidates came out in force to cast their vote (so to speak) in Iowa and New Hampshire. Not surprising to us, high intensity advocates (see our research, New Wave of Advocacy) are more likely to be influenced by political parties than low intensity advocates or non-advocates (39% vs. 24% vs. 11%, respectively). These hyper-advocates are engaged whether it’s an issue, cause, brand or political candidate. They are passionate and driven and intent on making a difference in a wide variety of spheres. Even the low intensity advocates have some mojo as my colleague Josh Gilbert says. The non-advocates need to get movin’ and get engaged.
The Journal of Consumer Research published fascinating research that speaks to Weber Shandwick’s thought leadership research-based initiative on advocacy (see a previous post by Liz Rizzo on the topic last week — we are on the same wave length). The research by Columbia University’s Duncan J. Watts and University of Vermont’s Peter Dodds reports that opinion elites – that group of influentials that everyone endlessly chases – are not really the ones that make the greatest impact on public opinion. In fact, the researchers found that there is a large group of “easily influenced” people who influence other “easily influenced” individuals. For decades, the two-step flow of influence was the dominant theory of influence — when media’s influence on opinion leaders (step one) impacts the wider general population (step two). Instead, Watts and Dodds posit that although there are situations where influentials are responsible for triggering large-scale “cascades” of influence, these conditions are the exception rather than the rule: “…that under most of these conditions influentials are less important than is generally supposed, either as initiators of large cascades or as early adopters.” The question that has been raised in various postings is finding those easily influencable individuals and seeding their recommendations.
Weber Shandwick’s Advocates are those individuals who behave in such ways that they influence many people and create cascades of influence by virtue of their passion, personal investment and championship. Finding a company, brand, issue or cause Advocate is in fact easier today because of the Internet and also because nearly one-half (45 percent) of the global population is now an advocate of sorts. The ring of influence has broadened considerably and although we agree that “influentials” and offline influence should not be ignored, Advocacy represents a new shift in communications and success.
A colleague called me this morning from the airport to tell me that the ultimate Advocate endorsement just occurred — Oprah’s endorsement of presidential candidate Barak Obama. Oprah used Advocacy brilliantly. Each person who attended the rally received a list of four phone numbers and names along with a script to use in calls asking for support in the upcoming primary. And get this…everyone in the audience was asked to text Obama for President. When election day comes around, the campaign can text message or call everyone and remind them to vote for Obama. The future is here. Advocacy starts now.
Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online Strategic Services, and someone who really knows about word of mouth spoke at a Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum recently. He said that “The way individuals learn about things is multi-phased: they hear about it offline, and then go to Google where it is affirmed or not affirmed. Hostile reviews get the top shelf of Google — and that creates a halo of credibility. Turning around bad news takes three years.”
Badvocates can create harm for your reputation for three years or more. That’s a long time to battle to regain esteem and find your advocates to champion your brand, product or company. Better to build that network of support before you need it. Three years is a long time. Think 2011 (2008 is basically here).
I was reading a book that just came out titled The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet by Daniel J. Solove, an associate professor at George Washington University Law School. He is an expert in privacy law and has tackled the loss of privacy in our personal lives due to technology.
He has a discussion about gossip and how the Internet fuels gossip as if on steroids. Solove quotes Albert-Laszlo Barabasi in his book Linked: “[It] isn’t the overall size of the Web. It’s the distance between any two documents. How many clicks does it take to get from the home page of a high school student in Omaha to the Webpage of a Boston stockholder?” The answer is about 19 clicks on average.
Makes one realize that championing a cause or product or company takes fewer clicks than typing “Today is Tuesday Nov. 27th” to get your recommendation or non-recommendation across. Advocates and their friends, the Badvocates, move at lightning speed. No time to waste.
One of the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Advocacy is rock star and activist Bono’s “Red” campaign. Bono launched a new push to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa on Thursday, unveiling a partnership with American Express and other companies to offer products under a brand called “Red,” some proceeds of which will be funneled to the cause.
