Digital direct: You have to make your content useful, entertaining, or both

by Mark Iremonger, head of digital, Proximity London, Revolution UK 01-May-07

The internet is revolutionising the concept of 'direct' communications by reversing the traditional consumer/brand paradigm. Rather than brands going direct to consumers, there is an increasing backflow of customers going direct to brands; making brands intrinsic to their lives online.

A good example of this are Google Gadgets - useful 'widgets' people can
choose to add to their personal home pages. They have the power to bring
a product or service directly into a consumer's personal space, but only

if invited. If they are, they can create an incredibly valuable link

between that consumer and your brand.

This reinforces the point that brands need to create content that
consumers value to earn the right to a relationship. That relationship
must be based on a fair 'quid pro quo' between brand and consumer. This
means creating content that is either useful or entertaining. If you
achieve either or both of these, consumers will allow you into their
personal space and make you part of their lives online. People currently
see web 2.0 as synonymous with 'community creation', but it is 'content
customisation and personalisation' that is really at the heart of it. We
will see a growing 'unbundling' of services that are traditionally
anchored to web sites, setting them free to be available anywhere at
anytime.

The internet will feel more like your living room (your space), where
you surround yourself with the things that are useful to you or that you
value, and less like a high street (the internet), where you move from
shop (web site) to shop. All of which means that if brands don't want to
be treated like an unwelcome guest in someone's home, they had better
start being either useful or entertaining, or both.