You could continue applying veneer on your old marketing habits of driving the conversation, pushing promotions and controlling the messages - and think of ways to make what you do sticky. This is the old, company-centric way and it has no business in the new media environment. Or you could borrow a page from Nickelodeon's book and make your content "slippy" so that your customers can spread it, use it, and change it for the better.


That is how the company does consumer-generated content -- by sharing its own and that of the company's fans. The brilliant distinction in the terminology is by Mark Earls.
Pamela Kaufman, Chief Marketing Officer, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, shared the company's new media strategy last week at the BRITE CMO Summit held at Columbia Business School, New York.
Nickelodeon is a company of global reach and size and a real contender to Disney with one big difference - they are thrilled when customers use their content. Family hotels, theme parks, Royal Caribbean cruises, and music are all in the company's present and near future - and so are its customers, the shows' viewers.
iCarly is a perfect example of viewers' engagement. A TV program that showcases an online show where kids can upload their content - videos, music, poems, etc. - for a chance to be featured in the show. I was sitting next to a marketer whose 4-year-old child knows how to turn on her Mac and find Nick's shows. Now that is slippy!
Running something like 600 promotions a year, Nickelodeon is co-creating publicity with companies like Chrysler and its characters. Aren't kids driving purchasing decisions in many families today? "It's a big responsibility," said Kaufman, who was recently promoted CMO after 11 years with the 13-year old company, "and we take it seriously." Her passion for the business and the audience - the kids and their families - showed. She believes in rigorous research - both qualitative and quantitative. "We need to have the pulse of our customers' preferences," she said.
If you want your content to be top of mind. If you want your customers to think of you as preferred, forget sticky. How can you make your content more slippy?