Sisomo, Misisomo, or Cisisomo?

Sight, sound and motion....better yet, Sisomo. That’s the big idea Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, introduced to Ad-Tech attendees yesterday in an energizing keynote address. “For marketers this is the big action point. Consumers are beaming a blaze of sight, sound, and motion, and electric orchestra of ideas, stories, and emotions,”  Roberts said.  (He also wrote about the same topic in yesterday's edition of Ad Age.)  Surely all of this relates to consumer-generated media...or does it?

I've yet to actually meet Roberts (the line after his speech was too unbearably long to even attempt a superficial greeting),  but it’s hard not to stumble into awestruck raves about this ad pioneer and visionary, especially from folks that work at Saatchi or some of my former colleagues at P&G. His energetic, media-rich keynote certainly measured up to his reputation, and I especially liked his almost uncompromising Zaltmanesque insistence that emotion is what truly matters in advertising. “What makes stories compel, attract, and grip is emotion,” he said. We simply don’t hear enough of that in advertising circles, especially in the context of interactive or online marketing, where so much of what we are doing is little more than repurposed direct “count the click” marketing.

That said, as with my reaction to Bob Garfield’s recent Listenomics Ad Age cover story, I couldn't help but feel that something really important was missing from Robert's speech.  Virtually every example he offered (with the sole exception of an innovative auto campaign that involved solicited consumer content contributions for a Times Square electronic advertisement) bordered on what I’d dub Misisomo (Marketer-Inspired-Sight-Sound-and-Emotion). It still felt like a world where the marketer, not the consumer, remains in the drivers seat.   “The vectors of the Attraction Economy are stories,” he tell us. But whose stories?  Is the technology of Sisomo about making marketers better “emotion” based story-tellers, or is about making marketers better, more attentive listeners and managers of the mushrooming CGM and blog-catalyzed stories emerging front consumers themselves. What about all the consumers out there exercising real emotion attempting to “attract” the attention of advertisers?

Roberts recently wrote a provocative book called Lovemarks (which I devoured) and there's a website by the same name that includes hundreds of genuine consumer testimonials about brands.  This Lovemarks theme came up in his speech, but it felt like a non-integrated extra "add-on" to the Sisomo concept, and this, I think, was a huge missed opportunity.  The two share a deep symbiotic relationship. The strong emotion toward brands being shared on the Lovemarks sites is taking place at an unprecedented rate across the web -- in full "sight, sound, and motion" or what I dub consumer generated multi-media (CGM2) -- across millions of CGM venues, from blogs to board to forum to direct company feedback.  We need to think beyond “attracting” consumer attention to catalyzing their passion and propensity to share their own stories, messages, and branded-advertisements. For example, Roberts shared an intensely emotional Pampers TV ad.  As a new parent, my eyes got watery, but the emotion was nothing compared to the feelings I have when I post photos and videos to my own blog dedicated to our twins Liam and Leila, some of which implicate (positively or negatively) brands.  And I'm not unique.  There are tens of millions of emotion-rich, consumer-created "points of expression" blossoming across the web.  Nearly 50% of consumers are now content-creators, and emotion is the core driver behind why they share experiences and feeling openly with other consumers. 

Here's the rub.  Most brands do a lousy job embracing consumer emotion. Feedback pipes are thin and corroded. Response loops are emotionally agnostic.   "Contact Us" forms push consumers away in the name of operational "fewer consumers the better" efficiency.  (Agencies rarely touch this arena.) Even categories where "emotion" and "experience" is central to the product appeal, brands marginalize the listening process. You'll be hard pressed to find a single brand anywhere that actually accepts emotion-rich photos or video as "extra-texture" to a written comment. Site, sound, and motion will never be a big idea if it's a one-way flow with consumers.  Leaders like Kevin Roberts can change that mindset by expanding the vision and scope of what advertising is all about.  If the "consumer is boss," or "in control," or "in the drivers seat" -- as all of us are so fond of saying -- what are we doing to give the boss a meaningful and sincere venue for expressing his or her feelings.  It's as much about Cisisomo (Consumer-Inspired Sight Sound and Motion) as Misisomo or Sisomo!

Comments

[owen mack]

This is all so frustrating for me. These big-wigs talk and talk and talk about this stuff and here I am making it. When are they going to stop tooting their horns and get with it? (all right, i'm done tooting my horn now.)

[Joyce Schwarz]

Wow, are you ever on target! But I'd go a step further -- consumer is a 20th Century word for a 20th Century anachronism called ADVERTISING! Usisomoco putting the U (YOU) in the front and co for content and commuinity as the means vs Roberts' mainstream media outlets. In the next decades screens will be ubiquitous--every surface is a potential screen. Blogs, moblogs, video blogs, MUVES (multi-user, virtual environments) and even Holodecks, holograms, androids and avatars ARE NOT THE CONSUMMATE USISIMO -- humans are. Never underestimate the power of human touch. Go ahead stand in Times Square and see what is the most compelling sight, sound and motion--chances are it's the couple kissing next to. Or you kissing your special someone. Just as it was at the end of World War II.