Media140 Oxford: Brand anthropomorphism

Yesterday saw Ande Gregson and Paul Squires bring the relaxed media140 spirit to Oxford, with an event intended to investigate the latest thinking and case studies around online reputation management for brands.

In a sunny room at The Jam Factory, Paul and Ande kicked off with some background about media140 and the concept of reputation before the excellent Eddy Lambert from Oxfam took the floor to explain how they harnessed some consumer-led social media activism around the Robin Hood tax.

This was a stand-out speech for me. Oxfam’s approach in handling the campaign is a refreshingly down to earth one, based on being reactive and flexible and trusting members of the team to guide the public dialogue without dictating or stifling debate and difference. Eddy’s points that the public themselves must own the voice and the passion of the campaign, and that team members engaging with them must maintain a careful balance between being genuine individuals and representing the brand, seemed particularly sound.

With the likes of this and the Voice Project, Oxfam are a great example of how a large and complex company can loosen their control over content and push through some innovative approaches – as Eddy said, as soon as other teams see how well it works, they want to roll it out too.

I was next up, discussing the concept of brand anthropomorphism. It’s all very easy to throw around buzzwords such as human, transparent and authentic, but what on earth do they really mean for a brand? Using my deck below I talked through the three dilemmas of brand anthropomorphism – self-perception clashing with reality, selective sociability and the complexity of authenticity – and offered some ways to build relationships with consumers as a personal, but efficient and consistent, company.

The key takeaway? Authenticity is a construct, as much for an individual as a business. That can be hard to square with our ideas about  ’natural’ self, but actually once you realise the tactics needed to make people feel an authentic connection with you – starting with listening to them, and adapting yourself to their needs – it’s a very liberating and indeed ‘real’ thing.

It was great to reconnect with Kristian Carter from IF Communications, a previous co-panellist at Like Minds 2010, and listen to his presentation on ‘the changing base of reputation’. Sadly I had to dash for a train before Brazil PR‘s Paul Beadle gave the final speech, but I’m assured all presentations will soon be up on the media140 blog so I’ll catch up with it there.

Overall it was a fantastic day, most of all because of the level of open questioning, sharing and conversation which transformed the passive presentation format into a lively, evolving dialogue.

If you want to discuss brand anthropomorphism and how to put the theory into practice, just get in touch.

Brought into the world on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 and filed under Case Studies, Events.