CROSSUMER: THE ONLINE CONSUMER

The consumer has changed his mind from the Internet beginning to now. Specially, his mind changed when marks and companies discovered all the possibilities that they could use in the virtual space. The companies have developed a new model of communication with the consumer, improving their results of sales. Also, consumers are happier with the innovations that we are going to study, because they are able to be part of the campaign.

Front of the book "Crossumer" 

We should to keep in mind one definition: crossumer. The word is composed by the two main references of the marks target: cross and consumer. Publicity is no more unidirectional on the Internet, this line has been passed. Announcement does not need to shout to generate interest when the old consumer did not look for products to much. Now, the consumer is not only the receptor, he can cross from one side to another of the campaign being the generator and, at the same time, the receptor. Consumer cross through the campaign.

Ian Davis, British technology entrepreneur

That reality comes from Web 2.0. By Ian Davis (Talis, Web 2.0 and All That), “Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It’s about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services”. It is a social space where information, communication and knowledge have a special task. In this way, the reality of publicity has completely changed.

In brief, the Internet has produced a new consumer called crossumer. He is very active, he participates in the advertising campaigns, he also is able to create adverts, he can share information and he decided if the campaign is good or not. In fact, sometimes the Internet is only a part of the campaigns that is completed with street marketing, traditional publicity and etcetera.

So, users are not only used like receptors, but also like creators. It is a very interesting part of the new role of consumers in marketing because of the Internet. Contents generated by consumers are a tendency based in the creation of ideas for marks and products by consumers. The main goal is try to involve the user/spectator/receptor with the mark. It appeared five years ago in the Super Bowl. As you sure know, an advert of 30 seconds of duration cost millions of dollars (more concretely, 4.000.000 last year), price that is profitable to big companies, according to the tremendous audience of the event (more than 111 million spectators in 2011).

In 2011, cost of a spot increased tremendously

In that time, Doritos invented a new way of marketing. The campaign was called Crash the Super Bowl and the winner was a video called Live the Flavor. Doritos received more than one thousand videos and let people choose the best five. These finalists received ten thousand dollars each one and the winner video was finally performed on live.

So Doritos produced a new trend in publicity that some people thought will not succeed, but they were wrong, because Doritos achieved the call were answered. Other marks like Nestlé, Pepsi or Nokia tried the same.

The main features of contents generated by consumers are the main target composed by young people; the spots have to create good opinions with the goal to publish them in TV and on the Internet; they allows the announcement to know the necessities of the target; it is possible to achieve a good link with the mark; it is not sure to achieve more sales with this type of marketing, if the companies abuse of it; it is necessary to take advantage with the user. The dilemma wrote by Raimond Williams about TV is very active again. Does the Internet change consumers and advertising agencies or are they changing the Internet?

In conclusion, the Internet is a field where advertising agencies can liberate their ideas and projects. They have produced a new model where consumer is also creator of information, as we have seen with the contents produced by consumers. It was the type of publicity we have focused on, but there are other several types also very effective like, teasers, contents with the appearance of not professional but they are, viral communication...

Finally, we must be conscious of our responsibility in that framework. A new era of communication is growing and we are its producers and its results.


Isaías Blázquez Rosales