NBC's Vivi Zigler says that content needs to be organic if it's going to be actionable. "The digital space is the most rapidly changing environment I've ever been in," Vivi Zigler, EVP, NBC Digital Entertainment New Media, NBC Universal, told attendees at the iMedia Entertainment Summit in Beverly Hills, Calif. "We're talking about reorganizing our whole structure; it's not revolutionary, but it's hyper-evolution.
" While a portrait of constant fluctuation in digital media might appear terrifying to some, the landscape is ripe for experimentation, according to Zigler, who told the crowd that the companies that will fail in the new medium are those that don't embrace change. "If you're not experimenting, you're dead," she said, adding that while NBCU might not get it right now, the media giant is trying new approaches to get it right for the future. As an example of a brand that benefits from its willingness to experiment in the digital space, Zigler pointed to Toyota, saying the car maker is not only eager to try new things, it is willing to participate in ventures that might not generate immediate or obvious tangible returns.
"Toyota has actually asked us to tell them when we're trying something new, even if we're not sure it will work," Zigler said. "That's really refreshing, but it also benefits them because we can turn to them for a lot of our beta testing on new products." Taking her message directly to marketers, Zigler reminded the crowd that the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all.
Zigler briefly used two examples to illustrate her point, highlighting insights from successful real-world campaigns that could be applied to the digital medium. In the first example, Zigler talked about marketers who used chalk drawings and copy to break through to young males in the skate boarding community who had become virtually immune to mass marketing. Zigler's second example showcased a liquor campaign that employed club-goers who attended hot bars to order flavored vodka.
The campaign put the onus on the bartenders to generate the buzz and push the product in response to widespread requests for the liquor. "It's about being organic," Zigler said, adding that digital marketers often fail to incorporate that lesson into their daily practice. "Content needs to be organic if it's going to be actionable.
" According to Zigler, organic means better creatives that speak to users who are already immersed by the time they visit the website. Repurposing TV content for the internet misses the mark, Zigler said. In a recent "Heroes" campaign involving graphic novels, Zigler said Nissan took its creative the extra mile by asking NBCU to have its illustrators animate the car makers pre-roll video, rather than simply tacking a commercial in front of the content.
"This made perfect sense for Nissan," Zigler explained. "It worked because they were thinking like their users, who came to the site looking for animation, and then the first thing they saw was an animated Nissan pre-roll." Zigler also urged attendees to think of their business in a new paradigm, telling the crowd to "bring their own business model.
" "DreamWorks has a movie about bees with Jerry Seinfeld that Jeffrey Katzenberg had an interesting take on," Zigler said. "They had a lot of extra content that featured Jerry working with the writers and the animators, and so they thought perhaps there was someone else who could benefit from promoting the film." Zigler explained that what Katzenberg and DreamWorks rightly saw in the digital space was an opportunity for alliance with another media company, NBC.
In other words, in promoting Seinfeld's movie for DreamWorks, both the studio and the network could benefit from a symbiotic relationship because both were in a position to leverage a community built around the popular comedian. "You need to ask yourself what you have to bring to the party besides money," Zigler said. "Most of you actually do have something that you can bring, so you need to figure out who else can benefit.
What's wrong with a pizza and a beer company getting together on a website for a football promotion?" Zigler wrapped up her keynote speech with a discussion of what she sees as the biggest problem facing interactive: the collision between traditional media thinking and what she labeled as community. "I urge you to be somewhat rebellious within your corporate environment," she said.
"For a lot of the lawyers and corporate people that I talk to, the idea of opening the doors to their intellectual property is very scary. But you need to educate them about the digital space and help them find ways to say 'yes.' Sometimes that means being a bit of a rebel.
" Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. NBC's Vivi Zigler says that content needs to be organic if it's going to be actionable.
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