Page 55 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014In an excellent article in Forbes magazine Martin Zwilling said that there are four key factors for defining a customer‐based marketing strategy for products or services:1. Accept that all customers are not the same. To this end, and with prior knowledge, a selection must be made of those on whom attention is to be focussed (young people, for example, Harry Potter; women, for example, 50 shades of Grey; freaks, for example, Game of Thrones...). An accurate selection can make it possible to create clearly different forms of content.2. Customers with a track record. It is not a question of having one hit but of cultivating and enchanting a public that could plant the seeds from which a loyal community could grow. Think of them as companions on a long and enriching journey.3. The cost of a new customer. A very expensive creation in terms both of time and money. It might not be the best offer for the kind of customer who is looking for more superficial, more immediate and more readily consumed content.4. Personalisationasagoodmove.Ifaformulafor success exists it is this: give customers what they want, adapt—insofar as possible—the creation and the content to their tastes and expectations. If this is the case, they will feel they are being listened to and recognised, and furthermore they will share their gratitude with their followers.If there is somewhere, a digital space, that complies with all these recommendations while also giving a voice to users, thereby strengthening the customer‐ centric concept, then that space is occupied by the social media. In any of their forms (generic, for photographs, messages, etc.) they are places for meeting and participation where the lives of the users take place. It is not even possible to talk of “another life” or their “2.0” life. It is the same life, the same day‐to‐day life, told in timeline format.Their profiles show where they have been through geolocation applications, what they have had forAC/Elunch through photos of the dishes they have eaten, what music they have been listening to, what links they have shared and what they think about the day’s news.And they will, of course, have had time to give a “like” to the amusing photos posted by friends and reply, in private, to their girl or boyfriend about the weekend away that they are planning. Additionally, they will at last have received a reply from the airline company with which they wish to book a flight telling them how much it will cost to take their bicycle with them and, since they will have had a few spare moments, they will have used them to make a note of the reference number they have noticed on their favourite complementary items Web site of the new backpack that want to carry their laptop computer in.WHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 5: CULTURAL SECTOR MARKETING AND CONSUMPTION THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGYIn a scenario of connected consumers, it is important to be where the users are, listening and contributing, but without invading their spaceSome experts callthis lifestreamingand it refers to theretransmission indigital format ofthe stream ofeventsindailylife.For most people itis a behaviour that verges on the narcissistic and superfluous since it shares information that is not at all relevant to the rest of the community. For others it is an absolutely daily activity.Such behaviour, totally natural in most cases, represents the opportunity that presents itself to those who administer cultural content and experiences to reinforce the bonds with users, to get to know them more and better. The strategy consists of being where the users are, listening, helping, collaborating, accompanying, contributing, but, above all, not encroaching on them, not invading their space.Publications whose usefulness is beyond doubt, recommendations for a book or author about a topic that is becoming the centre of debate, an invitation to see a contemporary art exhibition because it is CURRENT PAGE...55