“Coca Cola sees itself less as a soft drink bottler and more as an entertainment company that actively shapes as well as sponsors sporting events, concert, movies, and television series” Page 152
Life is too “clutter[ed]” and full of options for our attention to be brought to something that does not target our interests from as many angles as possible. Coca Cola joins the many brands that have now taken on the “convergence strategy” approach. This “strategy” aims to provide the “total entertainment package” and find a common ground for content providers and sponsors.
Henry Jenkin’s finds this common ground through the commercial jargon of “The Loyals” and “The Fans.” The loyals are the viewers that are dedicated to a certain series, they watch it religiously and are interested in the show/series beyond the actual episode. In ‘television world’ these people are called fans, however, without knowing it, their interest in a show makes them the perfect target for marketing campaigns that have lost their effect on the new “empowered” audience.
Advertisers use these “loyals” to successfully build “brand communit[ies]” through effecting the consumers/viewers “touch points” and building long term relationships between them and their brands, rather then focusing on one off purchases. This means that brands tune in to the “loyals” loyalty and interact with them via the shows that they are “fans” of. This can happen through product placement, advertising or interactive television, such as voting for their favorite contestant on American Idol. After all, we are always reminded that “every vote counts” and this makes us feel appreciated and heard. We are more likely to believe a ‘friend’ or someone that cares about us, then a faceless brand.
Brands such as Coca Cola have recognized peoples “touch points” very well and have established themselves to be one of the biggest brands in the world through branching out into all fields that interest their target market of 12-24 year olds. Cokemusic.com attracts young people interested in music, there are concerts and bands and recording opportunities available, this makes consumers forget that they are dealing with a brand (especially a soft drink brand) and associate the name of Coca Cola with whatever that find interesting in their market. Some will associate it with music, some with skateboarding, and others with parties, whatever it is, a “brand community” has been established and there is trust.
With “affective economics” the way to go now, advertisers are dealing with the television consumer market on an entirely different level. If it is through building communities, they must not speak their brand but speak what the consumers want to hear from the voice of the brand. When it comes to telivision campaigns it is not too easy to be evasive of commercials and most people are too media savvy to fall for the old commercial tricks. Brands now speak through the voice of the shows, hence The Loyals meet The Fans. This is how the content providers and sponsors found their common ground, it the shows job to lure the audience with things of interest while the sponsors intertwine the ‘boring’ stuff such a way that it does not over shadow the show but grasps the loyals ‘loyalty.’ Nothing works in one dimension anymore.
I can finally let it out….
It’s not creepy that this friendly Irish man has a blue couch set up on the side of the street and is offering everybody and anybody to sit on it and talk about their problems to him, especially not the group hug with the school girls. It’s absolutely normal, in Kleenex world. You can join this caring, giving, sharing world if you buy Kleenex and wipe away your lonely tears with their product, and only theirs!
Bibliography
Jenkins, Henry. “Buying Into American Idol: How we are being Sold on Reality Television” In Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York NYU Press, 2006. 59-92
Caroline Savransky
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