Is there any segment of the population more vocal than the sports fan?
It seems like anyone who is even minimally interested in a given sport will inevitably claim that they could do a better job of coaching the team, managing the franchise, running the league, or broadcasting the games.
About that last one: it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.
Coke Zero’s “Department of Fannovation” campaign is offering NCAA fans the chance to propose improvements to the March Madness experience. Armchair quarterbacks (or point guards, in this case) can head to ncaa.cocacolazero.com to offer their suggestions, which are voted upon by the community. The top 64 suggestions will be pitted against each other in bracket formation, with winner receiving $10K and a trip to the Final Four.
You know what this sounds like? Oh, I know… trend #7 from our 10 Trends for 2010: Consumer Controlled Conversations. As the trend says, today’s consumers have plenty of ways to “express themselves” online, and don’t need your help when it comes to sharing their love / hate for Lady Gaga and the like. What these folks want from you is a place where they can demand a better customer experience.
Unfortunately, with these consumers tweeting, blogging, and Facebooking all over the web, it’s hard for a brand to even keep track of these outbursts, much less respond to them. Giving your consumers a single forum for these discussions benefits everyone involved. The brand can see what’s being said, engage authentically with consumers, and – while not controlling the conversation – have the best opportunity to guide the conversation in the right direction. Meanwhile the consumer’s voice is legitimately heard; in the case of the Department of Fannovation, some fans’ improvements may actually be put into place. While the improvements themselves will help the NCAA more than Coke Zero, the latter smartly recongizes that being the facliator of this conversation is a brand buiding exercise in itself. In the Reputation Economy (yup, trend #6), that’s worth something.
