Building your brand in a "Let Go" world

Charlotte Otto, VP of Communications at Procter & Gamble (here she is with Katherine Yeats of Watson Wyatt, another measurement maven) kicked off the IABC Heritage conference with a speech that really rocked, in more ways than one. She talked about how P&G has embraced the "let go" world -- and sounded surprisingly like David Weinberger and Shel Israel when she talked about the new rules of engagement.  I should have been live blogging it, but instead just took copious notes on my HP iPAQ -- here they are,  better late than never:

1. Transparency trumps trust
   1. While it’s not “normal” for P&G to talk about lack of availability, they did so after Katrina and won the support of both employees and customers.
   2. One of the let go rules is don't hide the
            PG connection
2. This is the era of “hyberconnectedness” so much so that the new casual Friday is now email free Friday and one in 8 couples met on line
3. The conversation never stops
   1. Conversation have always happened but now they are more puiblics
4. Srop focus energy on how to control or coopt the message
   1. Focus on contol is misplaced
   2. We have learned to engage without  control
5. Experimentation trumps expected
   1. My space page for P&G brought in 4 million views and twice the clickthrus of traditional banner ads
   2. Need to learn how to oth be safe and authentic
6. Measure the bottomloine
   1. We have proven that these are effective -- the program drove sales twenty percent
            over projection
   2. My space “population” is now bigger than Japan but slightly smaller than Mexico
7. Cocreation trumps control
   1. Consumer generated content – all new  markting is “cocreated” with customers
   2. Trends toward greater self expression
   3. In two weeks 320 million dow loads if Mr. Pringles video – and they had nothing to do with it
   4. If you can personalize m and m’s you can personalize anything
   5. We have to be personal
   6. Have to make customers say that is “MY”  brand, not P&G’s brand
   7. Consumers' have more control than we do. We have to get out of our comfort zone
   8. ave to create Word of mouith that is scalable
8. They have two panels: Tremor for “tweens”  and Vocalpoint moms – they’re very open about the P&G connection. 100 %  transparent,we are 'not creating' messages and selling them to consumers, we are letting tham create and letting go in control while letting go mindset
9. Demands that we lead at a new level, must cultivate a “ let go”  mindset, need to be in
        synch our leadership blogs is the best read
10. We have to build “Let Go”  capabilities within our agencies

Comments

[Kevin Dugan]

I knew I should have attended this one! Would have been great to see you on my turf.