The above video interview is from Internet Week in NYC.
Sponsored by
We hear a great deal about the need to break down our corporate silos as essential to achieve brand success in the socially connected world. Susan Jurevics, Senior Director of Marketing at Sony, describes going one step deeper — acknowledging employees as proxies for consumers and guiding them into service as brand advocates.
The way that media is now consumed makes it difficult to reach consumers through traditional print advertising. Employee engagement is informing Sony’s move from traditional, 12-week campaign structure to “always on” marketing with consumer conversations and co-creation.
Jurevics, who runs brand marketing for Sony in North America, speaks about conducting deep research with employees — formal quantitive and qualitative studies, ethnographies and home visits to explore how they are consuming media.
When Sony launched its Make. Believe branding, it sensed that if its own employees could not go beyond simple understanding of the message, it could not successfully get it out to consumers. Employees were given language they could use on their Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles and other social identities.
The company also conducted a contest asking employees to put their Make. Believe moment into 150 words. The winning entrants had their stories about how Sony helped their dreams become reality filmed and streamed at CES.
Consumers are starting to understand the concept behind Make. Believe. Putting employees and consumers in the same, virtual environment, Sony is inviting consumers to join collaborate with the company in the development of short-form videos and narrations to create a steady stream of talk around the theme.
Change if this kind, Jurevics acknowledges, takes time to get through her big, global, diverse and heavily matrixed company. Initiatives that pull employee activities through to the consumer may just be the means to make Sony a bit smaller and simpler.
