Benefits of online consumer participation 'over-hyped'
ALTHOUGH MANY online consumers are becoming more active in content creation and interaction, that level of engagement does not seem to benefit brands, new research has found.
“Participation – Beyond the Hype”, a report by advertising agency J Walter Thompson (JWT) and market-research company TNS, offered an alternative view to assumptions about how much interest consumers have in engaging with brands online. The report was based on a study of online behaviour and attitudes of 5,600 people across the Asia-Pacific region.
Angela Morris, executive planning director at J Walter Thompson Australia, said the hype about consumer participation had distracted media agencies from the real opportunities. The game changer is not participation, it is content that sparks a connection. And the value is in that connection, not the participation that may or may not follow. Participation is not why people connect. It is a response when people make a connection.
Switching effortlessly
“The study found over 90 per cent of respondents are online-content consumers as well as interactors and creators, switching effortlessly from passive reading and watching to more active liking, sharing and commenting, to more proactive behaviours like creating and reviewing. Yet that level of engagement doesn’t extend to brands,” Morris said.
She said that just over half of respondents said they were interested in consuming brand content, but only three in 10 were open to interacting with brands online and just 8 per cent of those surveyed had any interest in participating in campaigns from brands that asked them to create content. And this was among people who were already considering a purchase, and were therefore predisposed to the category. The interest level was far lower among people who were not looking to buy.
“Campaigns that do generate lots of likes, shares and positive buzz do not necessarily deliver real results. Consumers who do participate with brands online are often existing consumers, so campaigns that spark interaction sometimes fail to actually generate new sales. We need to stop assuming interest in participation and create interest with[ content,” Morris said.
Parattajariya Jalayanateja, managing director of JWT Thailand, said the key role of agencies was to connect brands with consumers.
“The study unveiled healthy online participation by Thai consumers. However, this was often limited to simple feedback such as clicking likes, making comments, or watching video clips. When asked to go beyond these, nearly half of Thai consumers would feel that the brands are too demanding. This was the highest percentage of the respondents among all seven countries surveyed,” she said.
Alistair Leathwood, executive director for TNS Australia, said the study found that almost half of Thai people felt like they were doing work for the brand that benefited the brand more than them.
“This was the highest figure out of all of the seven markets surveyed, and goes to show how sceptical the Thai audience is when it comes to participating in online brand campaigns. Creating a successful online campaign is what the marketing community wants in this age of digital transformation, but we should not just focus on participation KPIs [key performance indicators] and forget the real goal of growing the business,” he said.
