by Jeremy Pace, Senior Graphic Designer
Relationships. We measure them by likes, shares, calls, messages and, obviously, by physically interacting with one another. For us individuals it comes natural for us to adopt these new means of communicating with one another, but when it comes to brands, that is a different ball game.
Curating the relationship between a brand and the consumer may be a bit of a tight rope act. Using the available channels to communicate your message in the most original or eye-catching manner, is no easy feat. Sticking to the traditional channels and tone of voice, may lead you to getting “lost” in the crowd. Using an aggressive approach may lead others to interpreting you as too… well… aggressive. This is were the social media manager of a brand and creativity come into play. By gathering intelligence on who and where the media of the brand is being received and responding accordingly helps build the tone of voice of a brand and therefore, effectively curating this relationship. This paves the way to a responsive brand that shows that it is listening to its customers. Till this point we have just touched on the traditional channels of brand and client communication which mainly revolves around: Social Media. But as technology evolves, thanks to the users embracing it, these channels, tend to adapt rather than react to these developments. More often than not these changes are minor: hashtags, handles, live streaming and, love them or hate them, emojis. But as we are about to see, there are some changes that are more radical.
The majority of our communication platforms now have the power of not only communicating with others from across the globe but it now can also take us to new and exciting places. With technologies such as 360° Photos and Videos, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), these platforms have opened up new possibilities for brands and content creators a like. All of these technologies help the audience experience, almost first hand, a place that they have never visited, or even an event that is happening. Brands like the New York Times are using 360° photos and videos to help their readers experience articles in new and innovative ways.
The latest technologies that are being implemented are VR and AR. Both of these technologies offer brands new possibilities for further engagement. For the time being AR is more accessible than VR since the latter still depends on additional hardware to operate. Thanks to these technologies we certainly have a lot to look forward to. But there is more. Having a team to back you with a good knowledge of the market and the audience, together with the creative flair to go behind it, this creates new opportunities to innovate and rise above the crowd.
