Ipsos OTX: Mirror, Mirror: Love and the Fourth Screen - Shelley Zalis - MediaBizBloggers

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the best-loved screen of them all?"

With apologies to the Brothers Grimm, the Evil Queen's favorite media channel could be the most powerful platform in marketing communications.

We as an industry are investing in media platforms of all kinds, with the goal of building relationships between brands and consumers using every one of the various touch points at our disposal. We talk a lot about a three screen world – television (mass awareness), computer (customization and connection), and mobile (portability anywhere/everywhere) – to produce a cohesive, persuasive, personalized campaign that resonates with our consumers' lives and builds our brands. How do we develop true connections in a pull, rather than a push, world? How do we make "your brand" become "my brand?" How do we create this "love connection?"

The answer is simple: just look in the mirror. YOU (and ultimately, all of your friends) are the fourth screen. We can now go from the power of one to a network of a million in a matter of seconds (and no extra media dollars)! Today is all about consumer empowerment. Consumers want to be heard. They choose how and when they find their brands. They share their opinions and they buy what their friends recommend. They create their own content and they shape their own products. Brands can no longer control their consumers… they need to be invited guests. A.G. Lafley of Procter and Gamble once said, "Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation. We need to learn to begin to let go." The most successful brands today will be those that learn to engage with their consumers – both as individuals as well as communities.

The fourth screen, the human network, is where the most lasting marketing takes place. The fourth screen is what connects all other screens. The human screen is what delivers the "love" connection.

As Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts argues in "Lovemarks," earning consumers' love and engagement is the only way a brand can survive. Think about it. If you love a brand, it goes from "a brand" to "my brand." Loyalty, a sense of belonging and trust, creates the bond that allows brands to make mistakes and be forgiven.

So, just remember in our digital "pull" world today, "i-citizens" are our most important brand advocates. By having a "love" relationship with our fourth screens, we can be sure that "consumer screens" will engage in open dialogue and share their opinions with their million best Facebook friends. Ultimately our fourth screens will become our greatest sources of word of mouth, and most viral advertising campaigns. There is a reason why Ad Agechose the consumer as "agency of the year" and Time Magazinedubbed the consumer as "person of the year." Influential? I think so!!

So, to be a successful brand today, we need to operate with a new paradigm. We can no longer push from the top down… we must pull from the bottom up, creating relationships across the Internet universe and making sure that we capture the hearts and minds of our consumers through accessibility, immediacy and personability. The love is there, just look in the mirror and you will live "happily ever after."

Shelley Zalis has over 25 years of experience working in traditional marketing and advertising research companies. In early 2000, Shelley Zalis founded OTX, which in nine years has grown to become a top 18 global research agency, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Miami, and London. In January 2010, OTX was acquired by Ipsos. Shelley now leads the Ipsos Global Innovation Center. Shelley can be reached at Shelley@otxresearch.com.

Read all Shelley's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Open Thinking Exchange - MediaBizBloggers.

Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger